Machine for winding yarn



Dec. 2, 1947. J. P. MACKIE MACHINE FOR WINDING YARN s Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 4, 1944 F Gi/ in vemor fimacmg Dec. 2, 1947. Y J. P. MACKIE 2,431,876

MACHINE FOR WINDING YARN wnuunm IIIIIIHHHNIII' I n venlor R Yvcmcj ttorney Dec. 2, 1947. J, P, MACK; 2,431,876

MACHINE FOR WINDING YARN Filed May :1, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheei 3 'vwnrm g Q. M u

- Q I nvenior B /Vflck/a Whammy Patented Dec. 2, 1947 MACHINE FOR WINDING YARN John Pringle Mackie, Belfast, Northern Ireland, assignor to James Mackie and Sons Limited, Belfast, Northern Ireland, a British company Application May 4, 1944, Serial No. 534,105 In Great Britain March 13, 1944 2 Claims.

This invention relates to machines for winding yarn either in parallel rolls or in tapering rolls as may be required. Various suggestions have been made for effecting the traverse of the yarn by rollers with double helical grooves in their surfaces designed to guide the yarn positively to and fro as it is being wound, the grooves being formed in various ways for ensuring the correct travel of the yarn as it passes the crossing points of the helices. It has also been suggested to use a roller with a single helical groove, generally with short return ends but without intersections, and to dispose the guide eye in a plane approximately opposite to one end of the roller, relying upon the pull of the yarn from the laterally displaced guide eye to return it to the starting end. I have not found this method practicable for winding rolls or cheeses of yarn of any substantial width because the pull upon the yarn from the laterally displaced guide eye is such as to prevent it from holding in the groove out to the end unless the guide eye is placed at an impossible distance away from the grooved roller, while moreover the irregular pitch of the yarn when returning over the surface of the roller under the pull of the guide eye alone is such as to give a package which is hard at one end and soft at the other. The pitch in fact is very open at the end distant from the guide eye, and comparatively small at the other end, and it is not possible to compensate effectively for this by variation of the pitch in the grooved roller.

I have found it possible, however, to use grooved rollers with two oppositely directed spiral grooves extending from an intermediate point out toward the ends, with no crossing points, and with a suitably placed guide eye to effect the winding of satisfactory rolls of yarn, either parallel or tapering. For this purpose the starting ends of the two spirals must overlap and the guide eye must be placed in a plane intermediate between the overlapping ends. By accurately positioning the guide eye in relation to the roller it is possible to cause the yarn to return from one end of the roller to the starting end of the groove leading to the opposite end of the roller, either in the same number of turns as in the outgoing'spiral;

or in a different number of turns if required and to produce satisfactory rolls of cross Wound yarn over a substantial range of widths.

The term guide eye used herein is intended is accurately determined. An actual guid eye or loop may be used or a small guide roller or tensioning device of any usual kind. The guide member may be mounted so as to be adjustable towards and away from the grooved roller, and

i also in a lateral direction so as to enable its position to be set'with accuracy in a plane between the overlapping starting ends of the two grooves on the roller, and at just the right distance away from this roller to cause the yarn to return from the outer ends of the roller underthe pull of the guide eye in the required number of turns.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a front elevation showing somewhat diagrammatically a typical winding device according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a side view of the device shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a development of the surface of th grooved roller shown in Figures 1 and 2;

Figure 4 shows another form of grooved roller, used for winding a cylindrical roll of yarn;

Figure 5 shows another form of grooved roller used for winding a tapering roll of yarn; and

Figure 6 shows another alternative to Figure 5. Referring first to Figures 1 to 3, a bobbin 25 of yarn to be wound into a roll is suitably mounted so as to deliver the yarn through a guide '26 to a tension device 27, and from this over a guide .eye 24 to the surface of a grooved roller 29. This the guide eye 24 it may be formed on a slotted stem 22 clamped in any desired position by a wing bolt 2| screwing through th slotted bracket 23 which carries the stem 22. The stem 22 can thus be raised and lowered or moved forward and backward. Lateral adjustment is effected by moving the base 20 of the bracket 23 along the frame bar I 8 and clamping it by the wing bolts [9. This enables the guide eye 24 to be set accurately in position in a plane between the overlapping inner ends of the grooves 34 and 35 on the surface of the roller 29.

In Figure 3, the surface of the roller 29 is seen developed, showing the two oppositely directed helicalgroovessd and 35 whose inner ends over-'- lan, but whichhave no crossing or intersecting;

points. Each groove terminates at its outer end in a short return section 36, and 31 respectively, which serves to start the return traverse of the yarn correctly from the outer end of the groove.

By accurately adjusting the position of the guide eye 24 the yarn can be caused to be traversed back o'ver thef surface of the'roHerl 29 under. the lateral pull from the guide eye 24. If the roller 29 is designed to give a traverse of 10 inches to the yarn, and if the distances marked a and b in Figure 2 are made 6% inches and '7 inches respectively, the yarn will return over the surface. of the roller in the curved tracks indicated by the lines 38 and 39. The inner ends of the grooves 34 and 35 are shown not broadened to illustrate the possibility of causing the yarn to return accurately to such inner ends by the meansillustrated, but for greater security the inner ends will generally be splayed as indicated in the other examples of constructions according to the invention with reference to Figures 4, and 6 it will-be seen from Figure 3 that the yarn willnot be quite uniformly distributed over the surface of the roll 3|, as theoutward grooves 34 and '35 are of uniform pitch while the return windings 38 and 39 are of varyingpitch. However; the yarn returns in the same number of turns, making 3 turns in each layer, and it is found that the somewhat unequal distribution of the yarn in parts of each layer can scarcely be detected in the finished rolls, as it only appears in a rather greater hardness of the roll near the middle than near the ends. "It is possible to compensate for this unevenness by varying the pitch of the grooves which determine the outgoing distribution of the yarn, and this is illustrated in alternative constructions about to be described.

Referring now to Figure l, the guide eye is numbered Gil, the grooved roller 4! and the roll of yarn being wound is numbered 42. The roller 4| has two oppositely directed grooves 43 and 44 which are of wider pitchnear the middle of the roller than near the ends, the reduction ofpitch being designed to compensate approximately for the revcrsely varying pitch of the yarn as it returns irorn the ends toward the centre of the roller under the pull from the guide eye ii}. By this arrangement it is possible to wind a roll of yarn so that it is of substantially uniform density throughout. As the guide eye is in a plane between the splayed inner ends of the two grooves 43 and 44, the yarn returns to these ends under the pull from the guide eye, and the splayed ends render it unnecessary to maintain the adjustment of the guide eye with such a high degree of accuracy as is necessary with the grooves formed asin Figures 1 to 3.

The invention can be applied to the winding of conical or tapering rolls of yarn, and Figures 5 and 6 showing two arrangements for this purpose, In Figure 5-the guide eye is marked lfi, the grooved roller 41, and the conical roll of yarn 43, this being wound on a tapering arbor 49 supported by an arm 5!) so that the roll 48 can be driven by surface contact with the roller 41 as is usilal; The grooves 5| and 52 in the surface of the roller are of unequal length, the groove 5i extending over about '1 turns only, while the groove tlextends over nearly 3 turns. The guide eye 46 is in a planebetween the splayed inner ends of the grooves 5| and 52.

In a tapering roll it is desirable that the pitch of thecoils' in which the yarn is wound should be 'greater atthe small end and less at the large end of the roll, andihe varying pitch of the yarn under the lateral pull from the guide eye is utilised to attain this result. The grooves 5| and 52 are of approximately constant pitch; but owing to the laterally displaced position of the guide eye 46 toward the thicker end of the roll, the yarn is wound at a larger pitch in the return. travel frorn'the smallerfend whilethe pitch is substantially less in the return travel from the larger end. The arrangement shown in Figure 5 is found to ive a satisfactorily filled tapering roll of yarn although the distribution of the yarn is not theoretically perfect.

.In-the arrangement shown in Figure 6, substantially perfect uniformity in the distribution of the yarn can be attained. in this case the guide eye 53 is placed approximately opposite the middle of the, roller 54, while 55 is the tapering coil wound on a tapering arbor 56 supported by an arm 5'! so that it rests on the surface of the roller 54 and is driven by contact with this. lhe roller -54 has two oppositely directed grooves 58 and 59 in its surfacewhich are of increasing pitch from the right hand toward the left hand'end of the roller. The result is to Wind more yarn'on the thicker end of the roll and less yarn on the thinner end, as is required for uniform distribution in the case of a tapering roll. In the return traverse of the yarn from the left hand end of the groove 59 under the pull from the guide eye 53, the yarn is wound first at a wide pitch which rapidly decreases until the yarn drops into the splayed end of the groove 58. The pitch of the groove 59 may be designed in relation to the return track of the yarn under the pull from the uide eye so as to give almost exactly the desired distribution of the yarn on the surface of the roll 55. At the right hand end when the yarn leaves the groove 58 and returns under the pull from the guide eye 53, its pitch is large at first and then decreases, which is the opposite to what is required, so the groove 58 is made of still less pitch than it otherwise would have in order to compensate for this portion of the return traverse of the yarn.

It will be noticed that in the examples of construction illustrated the starting ends of the outgoing spirals are about apart around the surface of the roller, which permits a substantial degree of overlap and makes itpossible to ensure that the yarn will always fall into the starting end of the oppositely directed groove when returning from the end of the roller under the pull from the guide eye. When tapering rolls are being wound as illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 of course these rolls will rotate at a speed intermediate between that at which the grooved roller would drive the larger end on the one hand and the smaller end on the other, there being a certain amount of slip adjacent the ends. This causes no difiiculty in practice.

all forms of grooved rollers used for the purposes of this invention the helical grooves ertend in opposite directions from overlapping starting ends at some intermediate position, while the guide eye is in front of the roller in a plane ezgtending between the overlapping starting ends. Each groove extends as a helix' out nearly'to one end of the roller, generally with a short return section to start theyarn running back correctly under the pull from the guide eye, but there no other guiding surface r'equired'on the roller to control the travel of the yarn until it returns to the a starting end of the other helical groove. There are of-cdu'r'se no crossing points in the helical grooves ahd no question arises of guiding the yarn over or through such crossings, which has been one of the problems in designing grooved winding rollers hitherto.

I claim:

1. A winding device for cross-winding rolls of yarn, and adapted for winding a tapering roll, said device comprising a guide member for the yarn, a roller with two oppositely directed helical grooves in its surface having starting ends in an intermediate position overlapping one another, each groove continuing without intersections to near an end of said roller, leaving the yarn to be guided by the pull from the said guide member alone from the termination of one groove back to the starting end of the other groove, means for rotating said roller, and means for supporting the roll of yarn to be wound, both of said helical grooves being of varying pitch increasing from the part of said roller opposite the larger end of the roll to be wound, toward the other end of said roller opposite the smaller end of the roll to be wound, and said guide member being in a plane at right angles to the axis of said roller lying between the starting ends of the said helical grooves.

2. A winding device :for cross-winding rolls of yarn comprising a single stationary guide eye for the yarn, a roller with two separate helical grooves therein, means for rotating said roller, and an arbor for supporting the roll of yarn to be wound in contact with, and driven by, said roller, the grooves in said roller having overlapping starting ends at an intermediate position in the length of the roller, and each groove extending outwardly toward the end of the roller without any intersections, the single stationary guide eye being in a plane at right angles to the axis of said roller extending between the starting ends of said grooves and so arranged relative to the roller that the yarn extends directly from said guide eye to the surface of said roller at all parts of the traverse.

JOHN PRINGLE MACKIE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,156,472 Dersen May 2, 1939 2,342,353 Mackie Feb. 22, 1944 

